Flying CDG-JFK today and on coach miles. I spent 2 months looking for business class milesaver awards, and kept close track of J.
I was surprised that the plane went out with J2 or J3 (and C2). There wasn't too much interest in helping (or maybe their hands are truly tied). The EXP desk this morning said they can't request anything from rev mgmt and that the airport can do an upgrade (which was surprising to me). The airport said that they in fact do have upgrades that can be applied on the spot, but not for T (coach milesaver) tickets. They used to do this and got reprimanded by AA in Dallas.
So my question is this: with AA trying to fill their business seat as:
1. A paid business ticket
2. An Op-up in case Y is full
3. For IRROPs on paid J from earlier flight
5. An upgrade in C for EVIPs
6. An upgrade using miles + copay
7. An upgrade using straight cash at check in ($436)
and despite almost every human being on the plane at some point being offered at shot at the 2 or 3 open business seats, they were still unoccupied.
Here I was as an EXP literally asking to pay the upgrade flat fee, use an EVIP, do miles+copay, or reticket in U as a milesaaver, and AA was not interested in any of these- the check in agent, who was nice enough, added insult to injury by telling me to prepare for a rough ride in the 757 as there is no personal entertainment. Thanks buddy
Instead, they used the 2 biz seats for drink service on the flight. I'm not kidding, they had the orange and coffee trays on on the arm rests.
It wasn't a bad flight, we had the more room seats with an empty between us, but after all the paid flying we do on business, why not offer a last minute (three hours before flight?) option for EXPs to burn more miles and look good infront of their significant others.
The winner was BA openskies. On the outbound, with exactly the same scenario, BA gladly accepted $550 of our dollars to move us up from coach to Premium economy, even thought it was the same T miles ticket that AA refused to touch.